Summer of Extreme Lies

The report analyzes the recurrence of climate disinformation during extreme weather events in 2026, specifically focusing on wildfires in Canada, the US, and the UK, and heatwaves in the EU, Spain, and Portugal. It highlights the role of 'participatory disinformation' and the failure of social media platforms to act on advance warnings from organizations like CAAD and EDMO.

• Climate disinformation during the 2026 extreme weather events followed predictable patterns that had been warned about in advance by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO).
• In the US and Canada, wildfire smoke triggered 'participatory disinformation,' where elite partisans set a frame that social media users then justify. This led to an escalation in violent rhetoric, including calls for the US to 'brutally nuke every canadian city' or 'conquer' Canada as retribution for wildfire smoke.
• Disinformation regarding UK wildfires centered on three recurring narratives: attributing fires to arson or human activity to dismiss climate change, accusing governments of prioritizing climate policies over wildfire risk reduction, and claiming scientists exaggerate dangers to push political agendas.
• In the European Union, disinformation actors used the debate over air conditioning to deny the link between climate change and extreme heat, portraying heatwaves as 'ordinary weather' or 'media-driven alarmism' and claiming high temperatures proved the limitations of solar power.
• Specific narratives in the Iberian Peninsula included accusations of 'alarmism' in Portugal—with 29 of the top 100 identified Portuguese posts containing denialist narratives reaching an estimated 4,758,626 people—and claims of 'deliberate weather manipulation' or 'sinister geoengineering' in Spain.

APA

Climate Action Against Disinformation (2026). Summer of Extreme Lies. https://caad.info/analysis/reports/summer-of-extreme-lies/

Chicago

Climate Action Against Disinformation. Summer of Extreme Lies. 2026. https://caad.info/analysis/reports/summer-of-extreme-lies/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Action Against Disinformation |title=Summer of Extreme Lies |date=24 July 2026 |url=https://caad.info/analysis/reports/summer-of-extreme-lies/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateactionagainstdisinformation2026summer, author = {{Climate Action Against Disinformation}}, title = {{Summer of Extreme Lies}}, institution = {Climate Action Against Disinformation}, year = {2026}, month = jul, url = {https://caad.info/analysis/reports/summer-of-extreme-lies/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }